Take Responsibility.

[trustbound]

Once again, as people finish their investigations and make their way toward the door at the bottom of those stairs in the dorms, the door down there is unlocked once again. It opens as though of its own volition, with a loud clicking sound and a soft outward swing, not firmly enough to harm anyone who might be standing in the way but enough to give them some slight encouragement to move. The stairwell it leads to is once again dark, the only light coming in from the courtroom below, if it can really properly be called that. It stands as cold and unforgiving as it did last week, all concrete and steel and the podium circle in the center, surrounding the darkened pit in the middle. Nothing can be seen down there for the time being; it simply seems like a large black hole leading nowhere. Three more podiums have joined Jean's in being arranged differently from the rest; Caren, Yosuke, and Chitoge have all joined the ranks of the deceased, their podiums draped in black with their profile portraits sitting atop them, greyed-out and watching the room with unseeing eyes. The thirty-sixth podium remains empty and blank, as always. Once everyone has found their place in the circle, the public-address system comes to life once more, and after a moment Jericho's voice can be heard "Dexterous has been taken from you; seems like a lot of you were friends with her, and you all know why you're here by now and what you're supposed to do. So hopefully you guys won't be disrespectful assholes again and expect me to make you give a damn this time! Be self-centered about it all you want, just do your jobs. After all, it's in your best interests to do that. As always, do your best - I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes." Thirty-one Participants remain. However many are left at the end of the day is up to you.

Comments

[matchbreaker]

... Wowie, that guy's the worst, isn't he?

[ The old lady says this wit ha very angry Evil Old Lady Laugh as she takes her spot at the podium. ... That's not relevant to anything, he just really cheeses her onions. ]

[blackmass]

He certainly has a particular charm, for some value of the word.

[withabigsmile]

Well, if he wasn't the worst, we wouldn't be here in the first place, would we?

[And Green thinks she's obnoxious.]

[zomgboom]

No, he's just a regular .

[innocentloveholic]

He's not wrong though, Ms. "Tell me why I should care."

[ .......it was your fault last time, Elda, so. she's prickly about this in general and you're a low hanging fruit right now. ]

[notaccurate]

He certainly does have a way with words.

[destage]

[...ugh, what she'd be willing to pay for the chance to see Jericho shut his ass up. Even so, they've got work to do, don't they? And for Chitoge's sake...she at least wants to see who's brought to justice.]

Kotomine-san, Alex-san, and I investigated the laundry room--it seems as though someone was in there last night, because there was a container of bleach out, along with a good portion of the contents spilled on the floor.

From the looks of it, someone was out doing their laundry last night, and they may have been attacked. There was a sheet and pillowcase in one of the dryers, and they were both dried.

[icysemblance]

[Let's form a 'punch Jericho in the face' conga line sometime.]

Was there anything in the washing machine, or just the dryer?

[blackmass]

Either they were attacked, or it was someone in a rush to clean something.

[heritrix]

That explains some things, but also proposes new questions...

[Rin frowns, and points a finger in the air.] Some of you might have noticed when you were in there, but Chitoge's bed was stripped down to the mattress. That was probably the laundry you found, Maizono-san, but I have to ask. Was it just a single sheet?

coming back to this

[introspects]

If the bleach was spilled out onto the floor, do you think the culprit may still have traces of it left on them? Bleach takes a while for the smell to go away, right?

[ninehundredlives]

[Well, then. Susan was content last time to sit back and listen to people talk for a lot of the trial; this kind of thing is really not her specialty. But this time, she's actually got information to share, so she'll speak up before everything goes to shit. She doesn't want to have to yell over people.]

I checked over Chitoge's body. She was killed by electrocution, obviously - but there was a wound on the back of her head, too. It was from some kind of blunt object, but it wasn't totally flat. She didn't...get it from falling.

[Like, you know. Jean.]

With the water and the...burns...I couldn't really tell how long she'd been in there. Not all night, at least...

[chessturner]

Could she have been knocked out?

[At least that seems like a reasonable possibility to consider]

In any case, I think it's safe to think those among us who aren't used to technology and electricity are much less likely to be the culprit.

[icysemblance]

...then someone may have knocked her out before putting her in the water?

[sleepytimegal]

Electrocution...?

[ Someone who did not see the body or state of the crime scene, for good reason. ]

Wait- the toaster? Is this where it ended up?

[heritrix]

To get back on the subject of the head wound, did anyone find a blunt object like the one Susan described? I didn't see anything like that in the bedroom.

BLEACH CHECK

[introspects]

Don't mind us! Just doing a little check!

[ orihime and sayaka will be doing a check on everyone's clothes/person for any bleach stains or scents! ]

[matchbreaker]

[ . . . I mean she's not wearing shoes still so her feet'd be pretty fucked.

But nah, she's normal. ]

[introspects]

[ orihime is, ironically, bleach free! ]

[chessturner]

Go ahead.

[It's a good thing Kyrie wears a lot of dark colors. It'd be easy to see if bleach fell on her or anything.

No bleach at all here!]

[icysemblance]

[No bleach smells or stains here!]

[sleepytimegal]

[ Naw dude no bleach. ]

[withabigsmile]

Is that what you're accusing me of? Stealing a toaster, getting cozy in Chitoge's room, knocking her out and letting water and electricity do the rest? If that's the case, then...

[She flips over her armbands, revealing bleach stains on both of them.]

You are absolutely correct! Murdering is a nasty business, isn't it? I don't think I could pull that off a second time. Not that I'm going to get to, right? Whoopsie. ♥

[That... Doesn't explain anything at all, does it. Although Orihime and Sayaka are close enough. They can see her trembling.]

[bloodisthicker]

...

Well, that was easy enough. I guess we can wrap this all up, then.

[tarrlok you fucking walnut.]

SELECTION.

[trustbound]

Kind of a lot, wasn't it?

[And there's Jericho again, sounding...well, about as he always does, honestly.]

If you're satisfied with what you've found, then go ahead and put your vote in. Hold whomever you think killed Dexterous responsible for their actions.

It's either the innocent or the guilty; one side's going to die here. Do as you see fit with all that, and we'll see what happens coming out the other side.

[withabigsmile]

[She understands her position, and that she's probably going to die.]

>DEXTEROUS

[But she's still not giving up, not completely, as futile as it may be.]

ACCOUNTABILITY.

[trustbound]

[And once the votes come in, the lights go out, plunging the room into sudden and complete darkness; it's as though all the power to the room has simply been cut, and for a good long moment the darkness just lingers, heavy and oppressive, over the group and the room as a whole.

And then the pit ahifts, the lights ringing the outer wall of it flickering their way to life, shining dimly and letting their light bounce off the inside of the arena; they blink on one after another, most of them glowing with a gentle white light. The exceptions are more numerous this time, however; the lights beneath the podiums of the deceased are glowing red, four of them casting odd shadows and spilling crimson down the white-tiled wall.

As the lights come on, it will be made increasingly obvious that Blue is no longer among you; she's disappeared from the circle, with no sound and no indication of where she's gone. However, if the last execution was anything to judge by, it's likely that the lot of you have a very good guess as to where she's ended up.

As before, Alena is waiting beneath Podium 23; she's wearing the Graceside Academy uniform, as always, though it appears stained with red due to the red light above her head. She's almost unnaturally still, the usual tics and fidgets completely gone from her behavior; she's simply watching, and waiting, and her gaze seems tightly locked on the door beneath Podium 34 - where eventually a panel slides back and open, noiselessly sliding back into the wall.

When Blue steps out, her expression is a little odd; she's smiling, visibly so, but the expression isn't a happy one - it's uncertain, tight, the sort of thing that doesn't fully reach the rest of her face. She doesn't seem dead behind the eyes, though; quite the opposite, however, her eyes are bright and alive and wary, and when she pauses outside the door it's to seek Alena out with her gaze.

Blue tips her head softly, bringing one hand up to play with the ends of her hair; she keeps eye contact with Alena for a long, awkward moment before Alena gestures a bit, indicating the middle of the pit. She says something as well, though it seems aimed toward Blue rather than the group or Jericho - it's impossible to hear exactly what she says, but those that are paying attention can see what it looks like, at any rate.

"It'll be fast. I promise."

Blue doesn't relax at that, but the smile edges a little closer to genuine as she edges a little closer to the center of the pit.

Alena says something else after that, tipping her head up like she's addressing Jericho for a moment; when she moves after that it's quick, her body dropping to crouch down near the floor, planting her hands on the ground. Suddenly, the lights ringing the outer edge of the pit are joined by another, brighter light emanating from the floor, forming a large circular pattern with a simple design through the center. The circle glows sharp and red against the white tile of the pit, encompassing the diameter of the entire arena; Blue tenses up almost immediately, her body going rigid, and her gaze is quick to dart down, shifting rapidly as she tries to figure out what this is -

And then suddenly, she can't move anymore.

Ice forms seemingly from nowhere, building quickly and freezing her feet to the floor, encasing her legs and creeping up her hips and waist; Blue doesn't scream, though she flinches from the cold, and once she realizes what's happening she struggles sharply, hitting the encroaching ice with her fists as it moves up her body. It doesn't take long, once it's there, for her hands to shift up toward her chest, clutching hard at her shirt; the encasement is tight, the compression and the cold forcing her to draw breaths that are more and more shallow and jagged as the ice encroaches on her diaphragm and ribs, crushing her body as it goes.

Alena stands up as Blue struggles to breathe, halting the ice's progression but not causing it to withdraw as the red circle on the floor fades back into nothingness; Blue's gaze is shot downward, her eyes wild with panic, and it isn't until Alena is standing right in front of her and reaches out to tip her chin up that she seems to remember that anyone else is even there.

Alena leaves her hand where it is under Blue's chin, her free hand coming up to trail her fingertips down Blue's cheek for a moment, the gesture unsettlingly gentle as Blue tries to breathe.]

Good night, Evolutionary.

[Jericho speaks immediately before Alena moves again; it seems she was correct about the actual moment of death being fast, even if the leadup to it was agonizing. She grips Blue's head and wrenches it to the side in one violent twisting motion, snapping her neck hard, leaving her upper body to slump forward against the ice encasing her, her head lolling loosely at a sickening angle.

There's no further brutality done to the corpse this week; Alena just...stays with her, and after a while she seems to come back into herself and she reaches out tentatively, just...patting Blue's hair a little, similarly to how she was with Yosuke earlier this week.

And after a moment, Jericho can be heard again.]

Oh, for fuck's sake, Alena, leave her alone - anyway, you guys did really well this time, I'm happy for you! That's one less traitor around, you know? Keep finding them and you'll do just fine.

You guys can go upstairs for now, though - there's nothing else for you to do here today. Good job!

[destage]

[...somehow, the lack of blood just serves to make her feelings even more complicated toward this whole thing. Sayaka doesn't avert her expression, though, just...kind of watching with neutrality as Blue gets her neck snapped, and Alena just pats her head.

She's not sure what she expected, but it sure as hell wasn't that.

Never the less...Sayaka leaves when she can, not inclined to stay around any longer.]